In recent years, there have been a configuration of wireless base station equipment where modulation and demodulation equipment (MDE) is connected via optical fibers to a transmission amplifier (AMP) and an optical feeder transmitter and receiver (OF-TRX) so that the former is remote from the latter. The AMP section additionally includes an open air receiver amplifier (OARA) and an open air receiver amplifier supervisory controller (OARASC) for the monitoring control of the OARA section. External equipment, which is an object of the monitoring control by the MDE section, includes the OARA as well as a power source unit, an antenna tilt control box, and a maintenance tool for example.
The MDE section, the AMP section, and the OF-TRX section have various functional sections, respectively. The respective functional sections are configured by substrate-like hardware equipment including a CPU for carrying out a software processing. This hardware equipment is called a card (see Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 2008-17245 for example).
FIG. 1 illustrates an example of amplifier 100 structured so that a plurality of cards A, B, C, and D as a functional section are mounted. This amplifier 100 may be considered to have a form where the AMP section includes the OF-TRX section and is connected to an MDE section 104 via an optical fiber cable 102.
By the way, as shown in FIG. 2, the plurality of amplifiers 100 (hereinafter sometimes referred to as amplifiers A and B) provided to be remote from the MDE section 104 are connected to the MDE section 104 via the optical fiber cables 102. When a new amplifier 100 (hereinafter sometimes referred to as amplifier C) is additionally connected to the MDE section 104 via the optical fiber cable 102 in the configuration as described above, a disadvantage as shown below is caused in the case of the conventional technique.
Specifically, in a conventional system, the MDE section 104 recognizes, in advance, the card configuration and the functional sections of the amplifiers A and B for example (information related to the amplifier) as shown in the table frame at the upper side of FIG. 2. Based on this information, communication is established between the amplifiers A and B, and the state monitoring control among the cards A, B, C, and D is carried out. Specifically, the MDE section 104 includes therein, in advance, the information such as the types of the amplifiers A and B, the slot Nos. of the mounted cards A, B, C, and D, the functional sections of the mounted cards A, B, C, and D (e.g., TRX-INF: a communication terminal functional section with the MDE section, TRX: a transmission and reception functional section, T-PA: a transmission amplification section, LNA: a low noise amplification section, external IF: external equipment IF card (e.g., OARA, PC or the like, ground input and output IF)) and the failure items regarding the respective functional sections. After the link between the MDE section 104 and the amplifiers A and B is established, the MDE section 104 carries out the monitoring control of the respective cards A, B, C, and D. When a failure occurs, the respective functional sections are subjected to suitable controls.
However, in the case of this system in which the MDE section 104 has a structure corresponding to the amplifiers A and B, the MDE section 104 obtains information from the amplifiers A and B based on the data recognized in advance. Due to this structure, when a new amplifier C is added (or changed), a need is caused where the to-be-added amplifier C must be adapted to this existing system configuration. For example, a need is caused where the amplifier C must be the one manufactured by the same manufacturer of the amplifiers A and B. Some restriction also may be required on the card configuration of the amplifier C (e.g., card structure, redundant configuration, slot No, functional section) and the functional section (by limiting the card configuration required for the manufacturer for example). Furthermore, another need is also required to re-configure the MDE section 104 so that the amplifier C can be used. In other words, when new data is set (or information is updated) in the system, the equipment in the system must be reset in order to reflect the new data or the update. This means that the services being provided by the operating amplifiers A and B must be suspended. Furthermore, the disadvantage as described above is severer in the case where the amplifiers A, B, and C are manufactured by different manufacturers, respectively, as shown in FIG. 3.
The present invention has been made in view of the points as described above. It is an objective of the present invention to provide wireless base station equipment and a monitoring control method by which an amplifier can be added or changed to perform a monitoring control smoothly without causing restriction on the card configuration and the functional section of the amplifiers and without causing any influence on the operating amplifiers (or causing a suspension of the service for example).